REAL LIFE THE BUTTERFLY

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Cookies

Turn your favorite sugar cookie dough into sweet angels. After making, rolling and cutting out angel-shaped cookies, use a straw to punch out a small hole in each arm before baking. Once cool, decorate with royal icing (recipe, page 161) and let dry, then string together with ribbon for the perfect edible decoration.

Let It Snow Gingerbread

ACTIVE 3 HRS F TOTAL 3 HRS 30 MIN MAKES 21 DOUBLE SNOWFLAKES AND 24 SMALL SNOWFLAKES COST PER DOUBLE SNOWFLAKE 45¢

1 batch gingerbread cookie dough (recipe, page 162)

Snowflake cookie cutter set ($8.99; wilton.com) 33 blue hard candies (we used

Jolly Ranchers) 1 batch royal icing (recipe, page 161) 1 Prepare cookie dough and roll between sheets of parchment paper to ⅛ in. thick; refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. 2 Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment. Cut out 21 large snowflake cookies. Use the medium cutter to cut 21 medium snowflakes from the centers of the large snowflakes. From the medium snowflakes, cut 21 small snowflakes. 3 Roll any excess dough and cut more small snowflakes (we cut 3 more). Place on the prepared cookie sheet and refrigerate until firm, at least 10 minutes. 4 Heat oven to 350°F. Crush the candies into fine pieces and spoon into the centers of the snowflakes (1 candy per large snowflake and ½ candy per medium snowflake). Refrigerate 10 minutes more. Using a wooden skewer, make a hole in one point of each of the large snowflakes. Bake one sheet at a time until the candies have just melted and the cookies are just starting to brown, 7 to 9 minutes. Let cool on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack. 5 Use small dabs of royal icing to glue a medium cookie to a large cookie. Decorate with royal icing (sprinkling with sanding sugar while wet). Let the cookies dry completely, then thread ribbon through the holes.

PER DOUBLE

SNOWFLAKE 152 CAL, 3.5 G FAT (2 G SAT FAT), 14 MG CHOL, 48 MG SOD, 2 G PRO, 29 G CAR, 0 G FIBER